Third March nor'easter pounds Ipswich

Tuesday

The third major nor’easter hit Tuesday, March 13, in less than two weeks, pounding the area with about 15 inches of blinding snow, winds of about 60 mph and blizzard conditions.

The first storm at the start of March brought hurricane-force winds, flooding and a town-wide power outage that last almost 24 hours and the second storm, less that a week later, dumped about 6 inches of heavy, wet snow, left another town-wide power failure of about 24 hours and downed branches and trees.

The storm closed town schools and offices, delayed recycling and trash collection by a day and also pushed off curbside, compost collection by a day.

Downtown businesses closed and motorists pretty much stayed home, leaving the streets to the plows.

At one point on Tuesday, about 220,000 homes in the commonwealth had no power, but most of the power outages were concentrated in the southeast part of the state, the Cape and the islands.

Top snow totals, mostly in the Metrowest area and in the southeast part of the commonwealth, reached at least 2 feet, although the forecast called for snow to reintensify Tuesday night and continue as light snow and flurries through most of Wednesday.

Melting will be slow, with high temperatures predicted in the low 30s to the low 40s for the next week.

Emergency dispatch at the Police Station reported no major power outages, closed roads or flooding.